Section 2: Meeting management

Scenario 14: Helping a late arrival quickly catch up on a meeting

Level: Beginner · Tools: Microsoft Teams Copilot in meetings; a transcript is required for post-meeting access.

Who and in what situation

Murat, a procurement specialist at a holding company in İzmir, sometimes joins supplier meetings after they have started because of back-to-back meetings. Rather than interrupting the discussion to ask “What did I miss?”, he wants to quietly understand the current context.

How it is done today

Murat scrolls up through the meeting chat and asks a participant to write down the latest decisions. In the meantime, he may also miss the next part of the discussion; he later asks separately who has taken on which task.

How to do it with AI

  1. When you join the meeting, check that Copilot is enabled in Teams. If you joined more than five minutes after the meeting started, select Open Copilot in the catch-up notification that appears on the right. [44]
  2. Once the summary is generated, ask “What decisions have been made so far, and which questions remain open?” Teams Copilot can use discussion points, speakers and proposed actions. [44]
  3. Compare the response with the messages in the meeting chat and the visible transcript. Ask Copilot about a specific time range or agenda item to address any gaps.
  4. If you plan to reuse the same summary after the meeting, check whether a transcript is available in the Recap tab; without a transcript, post-meeting Q&A is limited. [44]

Example prompt

Summarize the meeting so far. Separate the decisions made, open questions and explicitly named action owners. Do not add information that is not in the transcript or chat; mark any items you are unsure about as “needs verification”.

Evidence and real-world example

No independently published case study was found; Microsoft’s official Teams documentation states that people who join more than five minutes late are offered a catch-up summary through Copilot. [44]

Points to consider

A transcript is required for post-meeting Copilot questions. [44] Even if recording or transcription is turned off, Copilot prompts and responses may be subject to the organization’s Microsoft Purview retention policy. [45] The summary should not be treated as the official minutes of the portion you did not attend.

Sources for this scenario

  1. Catch up on meetings with Microsoft Copilot in Teams (support.microsoft.com)
  2. Use Copilot without transcribing or recording a Teams meeting or call (support.microsoft.com)